For the remainder of this year, Hong Kong’s construction industry workload can be sustained by upcoming mega projects such as the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge, and large housing programmes with 480,000 apartment units expected to be built over the next decade, Arcadis said.
Slower economic growth in China may cut construction costs by 2 to 3 percentage points, he said.
“As China’s state economic policy is to expand overseas, we can expect to see more Chinese funds go to other Asian countries such as the Philippines, Malaysia and Cambodia to fuel their infrastructure projects building,” he said.
North of the border, mainland China will be home to three of the world’s 10 priciest infrastructure projects of 2017, with President Xi Jinping’s US$150 billion “One Belt, One Road” signature programme topping the Arcadis survey.
India‘s US$90 billion New Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor is the world’s second-most expensive public works project, Arcadis said. A US$13 billion airport extension in Beijing and a US$11 billion airfield in Chengdu round off the ninth and 10th positions on the Arcadis survey.
“Four out of the 10 highest-value construction projects in 2017 are in Asia,” said Alan Hearn, Arcadis’ head of Asia buildings solutions. “Among them are the “One Belt One Road” initiative and the New Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor. Mega projects like these are mainly funded by public-private partnerships that will continue to fuel the development of the construction industry in Asia.”
